Planning course improvements

In an earlier tip, we provided recommendations on how you can reflect on your teaching. Using this reflection, along with other sources of feedback (e.g. mid-semester feedback, course evaluations, peer review, teaching observation), will help you to identify what improvements could be made.

When reflecting on a course think about the course context, by considering:

• the programmes the course feeds into as a core, soft core, or recommended elective
• the graduate profile of each of these programmes
• the type of students who typically take the course (e.g. third year B.Sc students)
• the accreditation or industry requirements or expectations.

Once you understand the course context, key areas to consider are:

• Learning outcomes
• Assessment
• Course content
• Teaching approach
• Learning materials

Remember that these areas are interrelated and making a change in one area can affect another area. Keep the overall course design in mind as you identify areas where you can make changes in response to student and other feedback. Before implementing any changes, we encourage you to discuss these with a colleague and/or a member of the Teaching Quality team and get their feedback. When you have identified the changes you are going to make in a course, document these changes and a summary of the feedback you are responding to in your course outline under the Course Improvements section.

To help you summarise the feedback you have, identify the key areas where improvements can be made, and plan improvements you can make for 2023, there is a Teaching Quality Workshop on Planning Course Improvements coming up - book your place here. To book an individual or small group consultation with a member of the Teaching Quality team, please email us (Teaching.Quality@lincoln.ac.nz) or come along to one of our drop-in sessions.